Thank whatever god you believe in, the holidays are over… Don’t get me wrong: I love Summer and Sun but I haven’t seen that much since I get back a couple of weeks ago and getting bored under the Sun is one thing, not having so much exciting stuff to discover and raining is another…So I’m super glad we’re back in businness. Since I came back I have enjoyed few things, but to be honnest most of the events I have attend were… how can I express that.. Well let’s say that I had the feeling I was on holidays in a suburb city some-no-where. I’m not going to give details, I might be mean and cynical if I start…. But honnestly some days, the agenda of the city was so depressing that you either wait till it ends, or you selfishly beg all your friends to come back in town (not to mention that you even think of more definitive way to end the nightmare).But enough with the whinning: let’s get back to some more exciting things this week. The real kick will be next week, but this first week of September is decent enough for an article!While starting a new season of my weekly agenda, I’m convinced more than ever, that we all need to promote those initiaves which are local, citizen, festive or alternative. So, let’s see what’s going on in Brussels in the coming days!

The table d’hôtes evenings are back at La Poissonnerie, in Scharbeek! The venue is a former fish shop now occupied and where there’s several social and cultural events going on. Usually the tables d’hôtes offer a vegetarian meal and the price is up to you to decide (sometimes with a minimum of 1 or 2€). There’s also usually other things going on around: like this week a reading with music of poetry of Henri Michaux…

FarmTruck is a truck but also a kitchen and a cinema! And they are looking for volunteers to help with the coming projects! In order to speak about it, meet everyone interrested, they are organising a get together this Thursday at Allleedukaai (an occupied building at the Canal).

SundayLéa Belooussovitch: Public View @ Platform 102
Platform 102 is a non profit art space in a private appartment of rue Antoine Dansaert, in the center. They have a great agenda of exhibitions inviting the public to discover some contermpory artists. For the opening season, they have ask Léa Belooussovitch to show her work.She is part of a collective of artists called Friche and they have already had two (if I’m not wrong) exhibitions together. This time, you can focus on Lea’s work as it’s a solo show. She will show us some drawings and pictures and trough her works she explores our behavior when we face dramatic events and how those behavior are influenced and framed by media, geography and aesthetics.TuesdayEloïse Van der Heyden “Secret Garden” @ Ping Pong Gallery
The artistic season starts very well as here we have another lady having a solo exhibition! The art world, like many other sectors, is not yet very gender equal… Men are still having the best spots in museums, galleries and other art venues and are still selling better than women.
This week, Ping Pong Gallery opens its doors to IDK Contemporary who invite us to discover the work of Eloïse Van der Heyden.I’m not going to try to explain you what she does and how I feel about it as I barely know her, all I can do is read the few articles online about the artist or simply attend the event.
That said, I found this video – made by Eloïse” brother – really interresting. It shows the artist and work in her studio:

ThursdayLaVallée Grand Opening @ La ValléeToday, Thursday, at the end of the day, I’ll go to LaVallée Opening. At first I didn’t get it: LaVallée has been open for a while now and I’ve been there several times already for different events… But then I realised that they probably talk about “open doors”: LaVallée is a working space for creative people and it seems that all the studios are now occupied and it’s a good day to get to discover who’s working there and what they’re doing. There’s some graphic designer, video producers, visual artists, graphic designer and many more professionals!The program will last for several weeks and it will start this 3rd September with exhibition, performance by Le Concert Invisible and a concert by Empty Taxi. I take the opportunity of Zoe’s (the girl behind the project Empty Taxi) concert to let you know that she has the project to make a music video clip and if you want to support her, you can do it thanks to a donation! Here is the link to the crowdfunding page.

On Friday, I’ll certainly will start at the Abattoir, the Brussels Slaughterhouse. Well I don’t eat meat, so it’s certainly not to do some shopping believe me… the fact is that the venue is actually beautiful and it’s a place to go : every Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning, there’s a big, colourful and cheap market here. Other moments of the week there’s also things going on. Like recently the opening of the Barattoir. And the collective of K.A.K, a group of directors, performers, dancers, writers… are having their K.A.K session here for the second time. I have attend the first edition on 22nd August and it was super chill and cosy! We laughed about the irony of being served vegetarian food only, we rocked with the band Pas Op gevaar and enjoyed Bright Entity Set.

When I’ll leave the Abattoir area, I’ll take the metro line 2 or 6 from Delacroix and will go all the way to Molenbeek – Ribaucourt station. It’s so easy when you have a direct and quick access,right?

Why the trip to Molenbeek? To go the Le Lac, an alternative venue in a former factory where a group of artists works and live and sometimes even organise great events. They are all really different from each other, so I can’t give you a real explanation… Like this week it’s a reggae concert!

It might be surprising to have Cedric Mython and Rzee Jackson playing in an obscure unknown venue in Brussels, right? I mean: youtube them and you’ll see that they had some gigs at festival with thousands of people enjoying their music! The thing is that Reggae still works and behave following the underground scene methodology: they have a big public, there’s a lot of concerts and festivals going on all year round but they don’t really have the media attention anymore, so they pretty much really free! If you read french, there’s a short article which trying to explains this.

If you don’t know where to go and what to do, you can always rely on Bonnefooie. This bar, right in the center, not too far from the Beurs (Stock Exchange building) is always open and seems to always have something going on. For example every Tuesday and Wednesday, there’s a live concert! This Wednesday is the band James & Black:

It’s a big event that is planned to happend in Woluwé in the “Pyramide” (name from the shape of the building). The best is for you to check the line up because there’s a lot of DJ’s, with various style of music but there’s also an art exhibitions, live concerts, performances and shows.. and all this in a steampunk atmosphere in a crazy big building…

By the way, since last Ocotober, I’ve started a bucket list: with all those places where I never took the time to go to (for many reasons: too far, too busy, too obvious, too much time to do it another time which never comes,….).

So I’ve decided that each month I should “force” a bit myself to do at least one thing. For September it’s the Rapa Nui building! Last time I’ve attend their events was when they were still at the Byrrrh another former factory they were occupying. Now they are in a former TV offices building, so I need to see how they are settling down there!

Strictly Niceness is back for a new season (the 13th?) and still going on at La Bodega venue. The monthly party starts with a resident night, so we’ll have Dj Kwak and Dj Suspect spinning all night long for us. If you want to discover one of the latest Kwak’s mix, check this.

And if you just arrived in Brussels and have no idea what is it about, nor who’s Kwak is, there’s a great video about it which can easily give you an idea!

If you’re looking for more electronic atmosphere, the Open The Box team has also prepared something for you! For their come back this season, they are organising the party for the first time at the Brussels Event Brewery (a former brewery now transformed into a event center). For the music, there’s several resident dj’s and also a guest coming all the way from Sweden: Henrik Bergqvist.
I have choose a set of Vieira but feel free to go to the event page to check what type of music the others are playing!

Talking about my bucket list, I realised that I also have to put on it the Park Farm! I might have a great opportunity to get there as the open air event Piknik is organised there… of course, it will depend on the weather and how tired I feel after the week-end and all the other stuff I already have on my agenda on Sunday morning and early afternoon…. But I’ll certainly try to make it happened! I’m really curious to finally see this park!

Yelyam

Photo de couverture prise à Flagey – Bruxelles, avril 2013

Cover Picture: Michel Omaley is “Looking for figurants for my funerals next week (my friends are travelling)” – seen in Flagey – Brussels April 2013

If you’re looking for other ideas, have a look at the calender with my selections. I can’t speak about everything but there’s many other great things going on! From an Experimental Music Fair to a fleamarket, other parties, open airs and live music concerts, a theatre festival or a cine-concert… and even a clue of the coming weeks!

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